SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Athletics Department held its Crimson Carpet Awards on Wednesday night at the Ken Garff Red Zone at Rice-Eccles Stadium, celebrating the best of student-athlete and team achievement from the 2022-23 school year. Organized by the Crimson Council, Utah’s student-athlete advisory group, the evening began with a reception in the Diglisic Family Lounge and the awards program in the Julie M. & David S. Layton Field Club.
The Crimson Carpet Awards gather all student-athletes together for an evening to celebrate academic success, athletic talent, community service and leadership. Teams put forth their nominees for many of the awards while coaches made the nominations for the senior awards. Student-athletes voted on the winners.
Crimson Council representatives Jenna Johnson (women’s basketball) and Jordyn Gasper (softball) delivered the event’s introduction, and kicked off the evening by introducing Athletics Director Mark Harlan and University of Utah President Taylor Randall for opening remarks, as well gymnastics student-athlete Cristal Isa, the event’s senior speaker.
The award winners revealed Wednesday night are:
WELLNESS ADVOCATE AWARD
Hannah Truax (Swimming & Diving)
Demonstrated commitment to personal wellness and showed courage in advocating for mental health awareness among student-athletes.
SOCIAL JUSTICE ADVOCATE AWARD
Maya LeBar (Track & Field)
Committed to creating and maintaining actionable change in the athletics department, at the University of Utah and within the Salt Lake City community surrounding social justice issues.
JAMES R. “BUD” JACK TEAM COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD
Women’s Swimming & Diving
Team that has gone the extra mile to give back to Salt Lake City. Not only does it have a powerful reflection of who this team is, but also reflects what it means to be a caring student athlete at Utah.
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR AWARDS
Women’s: Makenna Smith (Gymnastics)
Men’s: Nikko DiPonio (Lacrosse)
Excelled in his/her first season of competition at the collegiate level by demonstrating dedication, ability and spirit.
SENIOR AWARDS
JOHN CRAWFORD COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD
Lizzy DeCecco (Women’s Swimming & Diving)
Performed a significant amount of community or university service during…
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